Bottom’s up for Tigers

Sunday

May 30, 2010 at 12:01 AMMay 30, 2010 at 7:00 AM

Sam Miles

For weeks now, Missouri Coach Ehren Earleywine has been looking for someone, anyone, to help balance out an offensive attack too top-heavy for his liking. Left field, second base, designated player — all were spots Earleywine said might be tinkered with, even as his team prepared to host its first super regional, but he had no silver bullets or sure things.

SATURDAY

Missouri 1, Oregon 0

SUNDAY

Oregon at Missouri,

Noon (ESPN, 1580 AM, 100.5 FM, 88.1 FM)

Oregon at Missouri (if necessary)

2:30 p.m. (ESPN, 1580 AM, 100.5 FM, 88.1 FM)

“All week long we’ve been looking for kids to fill those six through nine roles,” Earleywine said, “and basically all you have to go on is your week of practice.”

With a strong week of workouts and a solid intersquad performance, Lisa Simmons, a junior outfielder with all of 36 at-bats this season, made herself a candidate.

“We thought the matchup was pretty good,” Earleywine said. “And at the end of the day, if Lisa doesn’t hit, she usually gives you very good defense in the outfield.”

Batting eighth in the Missouri lineup yesterday at University Field, Simmons didn’t have to rely on her defensive reputation.

After reaching base on a two-out single and advancing on a wild pitch, Simmons scored the game’s only run when Gina Schneider’s tapper to third drew a wild throw. Sprinting all the way, Simmons’ run — and another terrific performance from pitcher Kristin Nottelmann — gave ninth-seeded Missouri a 1-0 victory over Oregon and a 1-0 advantage in the best-of-three series.

“That’s just a hustle play on Lisa Simmons’ part,” Earleywine said.

While Simmons’ star turn might have come as a surprise, Nottelmann’s heroics are quickly becoming the norm. After an up-and-down regular season, the sophomore right-hander’s six-hit shutout gave her a fourth consecutive postseason win.

“Two months ago, Kristin couldn’t have done that,” Earleywine said. “She just did not have the confidence, she didn’t have the courage, she didn’t have the toughness and she hadn’t put the time in in the bullpen.

“It’s not a knock on her — it’s the amount of distance she’s come in such a short amount of time. You don’t see that very often in a kid during the course of a season.”

After allowing no runs on six hits and two walks in seven innings yesterday, Nottelmann (23-7) has allowed only two earned runs in the past 24 innings.

Perhaps even more impressive was that she wasn’t at her best.

After she showed little velocity during pregame warmups, Earleywine said he didn’t expect more than four or five innings out of his starter, whose velocity has often paralleled her effectiveness.

Defying expectations once more, Nottelmann thrived in pressure situations after loading the bases in the second and fifth innings.

“It was kind of like last weekend,” Nottelmann said. “They’re going to get their hits, they’re going to get on base, but you just have to go to that next level and bear down and make sure they don’t get that run across.”

After a single and a sacrifice put a runner on second base in the second inning, an error by shortstop Jenna Marston and another infield single put the Tigers in a bases-loaded, one-out situation, but Nottelmann coaxed a lineout and a groundout to end the threat.

Not done living dangerously, Nottelmann allowed a single and a double to lead off the fifth inning before retiring the next two batters.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Earleywine called for an intentional walk of Oregon’s No. 3 hitter, Sam Pappas, to load the bases, and Nottelmann induced a ground ball to end the inning.

Oregon (36-20), which stranded eight runners, got another runner as far as second base in the sixth but could not get a clutch hit. Against Ducks starter Jessica Moore (16-12), Missouri (50-11) had only four hits.

Outside of the run-scoring play by Simmons, the Tigers had little good to say about their offensive performance, though they think another look at Moore — a dropball artist — might help.

Moore, who set Oregon’s single-season strikeout record this year as a freshman, is expected to go again for the Ducks, while Earleywine confirmed that he’s be hoping for seven more innings out of Nottelmann in the first of today’s two potential games.

If those innings are anything like her last 24, the Tigers likely will be on their way back to the College World Series for the second time in as many years.